Diving involves breathing air or other breathing gases at an elevated ambient pressure, resulting in uptake of nitrogen in the diver's body. This can have serious consequences for the diver if dealt with incorrectly. A diving computer is the best way to ensure the maximum level of safety during this activity. A diving computer may be mounted on a wrist band, or on a console that also carries other instruments. A diving computer may alternately be mounted elsewhere, as for instance on a writing slate attached to the diving vest.
Diving computers provide information regarding dive depth, dive times, and decompression schedules. This and other information is important to divers, allowing them to dive to desired depths for certain lengths of time and then ascend safely. The diving computer can display information concerning the depth and length of the dive, and can also calculate other important information, such as a decompression schedule. This information may be displayed on the screen, allowing the diver to know when his or her ascent should begin, and also informing the diver of decompression stops during the ascent. This information helps the diver prevent decompression sickness (DCS).
Divers have differing preferences as to what information should be displayed by the diving computer. For instance, some divers want only a few items of information to be prominently displayed, these few items for instance including present dive depth, bottom time, and decompression status. Other divers want more items of information, and do not mind if the individual items displayed are smaller in size. These items may include the above-mentioned items, and also a maximum depth, a water temperature, a central nervous system oxygen toxicity reading, and a partial pressure of oxygen.
Typically all of this information is arranged in an LCD display with predefined “segments.” The segments define what information can be displayed and where. Some areas of the display can show more than one parameter, be it by pressing a button on the computer or via pre-programming. Since dive computers often have “surface functions” also, such as logbook, dive planner and more, there is also the need to display menus, symbols and other information pertaining to the surface functions. This can quickly fill up the available area of the display. As a result, the area available for display of pertinent dive information is reduced and consequently the information itself is small and may lead to a confusing display.
The prior art provides diving computers with only limited ways of displaying of information. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,848 discloses a diving computer that measures external parameters, such as external pressure, a breathing tank pressure, and salinity of the water, and then displays this information. There is no disclosure of customizing the display of information. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,845,235 discloses a diving computer that allows a user to program the diving computer to display one or more desired items of information, along with an additional portion of the display for displaying permanently selected items. There is no disclosure of further customizing the display.
U.S. Pat. Appl. Publ. 2005/0095067 discloses a more advanced display of information, including several dive parameters. However, the resulting screen is very crowded with items of information, and two screens are required to display all the information needed by the diver. What is needed is a better diving computer in which information desired by a diver may be seen on a single screen. These and other advantages of the invention, as well as additional inventive features, will be apparent from the description of the invention provided herein.